The present invention relates to shift lever apparatus with a range position indicator, and more specifically to a shift lever apparatus for preventing collision noises in shifting operation in a lateral direction.
A shift lever range position indicating system is employed widely in motor vehicles, to indicate the range in which an automatic transmission is set. In automatic transmissions of some types, there is further provided a manual mode in addition to the ranges of the automatic mode, and hence, the shift lever range position indicating system is arranged to indicate the manual mode.
A United States Patent Application Publication Pub. No. US 2005/0000310A1 (corresponding to Japanese published Patent Application Pub. No. 2005-1401) discloses an automatic transmission shift range indicating mechanism of earlier technology. This shift range indicating mechanism includes an indicator base, a first slide plate which is formed with an opening receiving the shift lever and which is slidable in the indicator base in a longitudinal direction of a vehicle body together with a shift lever extending through the opening of the first slide plate, and a second slide plate which is formed with an opening receiving the shift lever and which is slidable in the first slide plate in a lateral direction from a D range to a manual range when the shift lever is inclined to the right.